Brabantsche Yeesten

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The Battle of Worringen 1288 from a manuscript by the Brabantsche Yeesten in the Royal Library of Brussels (ms. IV 684, around 1440/50)

The Brabantsche Yeesten or Gestes de Brabant are a rhyming chronicle with more than 46,000 verses that was created in the first half of the 14th century . In five (later supplemented to seven) books the work told in mid-Dutch language the history of the Duchy of Brabant from the beginnings to the late Middle Ages and the exploits of the Dukes of Brabant. The author of the first five books is the city ​​clerk of Antwerp Jan van Boendale (approx. 1280 – approx. 1351). Books six and seven were written about a hundred years later. The title "Brabantsche Yeesten" comes from the poet himself (book 1, verse 50). "Yeesten" (from French gestes , to Latin gesta ) are deeds or heroic deeds.

Emergence

The first five books of the “Brabantsche Yeesten” were written between 1318 and around 1350 as a commissioned work for an Antwerp patrician. They comprise 16,318 verses and are written by Jan de Klerk in Antwerp, identified as Jan van Boendale. Books six and seven with a continuation of the rhyming chronicle up to the year 1440 were written about a hundred years later. The author and place of origin of the sixth (dated 1432) and seventh (dated 1440) books are unknown.

Boendale drew on several sources, including the Chronica de origine ducum Brabantiae (Chronicle of the Origin of the Dukes of Brabant) from 1294 and other genealogies of the Dukes of Brabant. His main source, however, was the "Spieghel Historiael" by Jacob van Maerlant , from which he took his first three books almost verbatim.

Boendale himself wrote in his introduction that he wanted to tell the story of the Dukes of Brabant truthfully. Like Jacob van Maerlant, he describes the Brabant swan knight legend as a lie:

"Om dat van Brabant beloghen the hertoghen
Voermaels thick sijn,
Alse dat si quamen metten swane,
Daer bi hebbic mi ghenomen ane
Dat ic the will to reveal the truth, spread the
end in dietscher rime"

- Book 1, verses 1-6 of the Chronicles

In the fifth book Jan van Boendale writes as a contemporary witness. The chronicle, however, represents the Brabant point of view and should not be regarded as an objective representation.

Content and structure

In his first book, Boendale tells the descent of the Dukes of Brabant from the Trojans . Then he makes a leap in time to the Merovingians and the Pippinids . The first book ends with the death of Pippin the Kurzen in 768. The second book is dedicated to his son Karl , the king and emperor of the Carolingian Empire. In the third book, Boendale comes to the history of Brabant. The emphasis here is on Godfrey of Bouillon , the leader of the First Crusade . The dukes of Lower Lorraine are treated in the fourth book: Gottfried I. , II. And III. von Löwen and Heinrich I. , II. and III. from Brabant. Through these rulers, Boendale comes to Duke Johann I , the victor of the Battle of Worringen in 1288. The fifth and initially last book tells the reigns of Johann I, II and III. Boendale worked on the Chronicle and added other chapters until shortly before his death.

Lore

The Brabantsche Yeesten have come down to us in seven manuscripts. From 1839 they were first published in print by Jan Frans Willems and Jean Henri Bormans.

The Royal Library in Brussels received in 1970 in exchange for the General Archives, two in the first half of the 15th century dated manuscripts of Brabantsche Yeesten (ms. IV 684 ms and IV. 685). The two manuscripts on paper offer the most updated text of any manuscript. The fragment ms. IV 684 only includes book four and is illustrated with 69 strikingly realistic pictures, making it the only surviving illustrated manuscript of the Yeesten. The band ms. IV 685 with book five contains spaces for pictures but is not illustrated. The two volumes probably come from the Affligem Abbey near Brussels. They came to the General Archives in 1835 as a gift from the collector Pierre François Ghysel. They had only escaped destruction by a happy accident. The collector had bought them from a tobacconist who planned to use the leaves as wrapping paper.

literature

  • Jan Frans Willems : De Brabantsche Yeesten ; Volume 1, Brussels 1839 online at google books . Volume 2, Brussels 1843 online at google books ; Volume 3 (with Jean Henri Bormans), Brussels 1869
  • Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier: Cinq années d'acquisitions. 1969-1973. Exposition organized à la Bibliothèque royale Albert Ier du 18 janvier au 1er mars 1975 . No. 26 of the catalog, Brussels 1975, pp. 53–58 PDF 2.3 MB, online
  • Katell De Groote: Jan Van Boendaele, Brabantse Yeesten, XXIV. Scriptie voorlegerd aan de Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Academiejaar: 2002–2003 online

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Bernard Bousmanne: Jan van Boendale, Brabantsche Yeesten , online at belgica.kbr.be

Web links

Commons : Brabantsche Yeesten  - collection of images, videos and audio files